Photo album

Warning: this now takes FOREVER to download, but I think it's worth it.

Betschart/Davis

George A. and Anna Betschart and their three sons: Fritz, Louis and George F., circa 1935. I realize that before I dated this circa 1930. So how do I now know this is five years later than I thought? ...Because of this photo, obviously taken at the same time, with my grandmother, Thelma Davis Betschart (later Smith Riehm), included.

George and Anna Betschart's 50th anniversary party, 1962. The party was postponed from the original date (January) because George had a heart attack. Note that he looks well pleased with himself and that Anna looks somewhat pale and worried.

George and Anna's 50th anniversary party, 1962

Jack Davis Betschart, son of George F., age 6 months, 1937, Long Beach. Grandpa and Grandma Betschart moved to Southern California looking for work; they moved back not long after this photo was taken.

Thelma Davis in 1966, around the time she divorced George F. Betschart. She probably didn't like the angle from which this photo was being taken.
For more photos of Thelma Davis, look under the Riehms.

Nyla Davis Keaton Stephenson and her five children, probably in the late '70s. Nyla was Thelma's oldest sister.

DeKinder/Farnbach/Immel/McKay/Miller

John DeKinder's blacksmith shop in Lovelock, Nevada, circa 1915. He served at least two terms as mayor of Lovelock in the 1940s.

Margaret Immel and her early beehive hairdo

Margaret Immel DeKinder, circa 1905 and someone else, probably her mother, Juliana Zink, or maybe one of her sisters. Nana DeKinder (who died three days after I was born) anticipates the beehive hairdo with this variation on the pompadour.

Rex and Julia Riehm, front and center, with Julia's cousins Theresa, left, and Petronella, right, and Ray Muerer, partially obscured by Rex. This photo, courtesy Ray Muerer, was taken circa 1971.

John DeKinder (far right in the linked photo), his parents, Martin DeKinder and Anna Maria Farnbach (seated), his four sisters -- Blondina Theresa, Catherina Margaret, Anna Maria, and Ludovica, aka Louise (the little girl), and Anna Maria's husband, Joseph Frank Meurer, about 1906. Martin DeKinder had been a schoolteacher in Calhoun County, Illinois. Before coming to the United States in 1872, he had been a soldier in the Prussian cavalry and fought in the Franco-Prussian War. Bet his students were scared of him!

Christening photo of Julia DeKinder with her parents, John and Margaretha, about 1911.

Julia and John DeKinder (Jr.), circa 1915. The ribbons in Grandma's hair are probably left over from her mother's own childhood in Russia.

This is Julia DeKinder Riehm's passport photo, circa 1975. Grandma would probably kill me if she knew I was posting this -- but it is a good picture of her. The icy blue eyes came from her father, John DeKinder.

Of course, what do you do with a passport photo? Go somewhere! Grandma Julia and Grandpa Rex went to the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand in the early '70s. At the time of the Down Under journey, Grandpa Rex doesn't seem to have been aware of his grandmother's Australian roots (she had died 25 years before he was born, after all). Recently when I told Aunt Mary DeKinder that he had an Australian grandmother, she was surprised, and she and Uncle John were on this trip. Anyway, this is Grandma Julia in New Zealand.

John DeKinder (Jr.) and his family -- Mary Thomas DeKinder and daughters Cookie and Diane, ca. 1952. I think this was taken at the Riehms' house at 580 Ridge Street in Portola. John eventually moved to San Jose with his family and went to work for Lockheed.

Diane McKay and her "No. 1 son," Ron, Oct. 6, 2001.

Diane's No. 2 son, Rob (far right), his wife Sarah, and his uncle on the other side, Steve McKay, Oct. 6, 2001.

A four-generation portrait. The baby is Melody Miller, born the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 (!), with her father, Chris Miller; her great-grandmother, Mary DeKinder, and her grandmother, Carol Miller.

Riehm/Burke/Sullivan/Dandurand

Maggie Moore (Margaret Virginia Sullivan), the family actress; also a picture of her and her first husband, J.C. Williamson.

Rex Riehm and the former Julia DeKinder on their honeymoon at Lake Tahoe. They were married Nov. 22, 1930.

This is (at least I think it is) Cordelia Dandurand, circa 1915. So what do you think -- could either one of the people in the next photo have given her those cheekbones?

A set of great-great grandparents, circa 1880. Rex Riehm, my grandfather, told me they were his grandparents, but silly me, I never asked which ones. The most likely possibility is that they're Cyprian and Celine Janotte-Lachapelle Dandurand, but they could also be Mattias and Mary Burke Riehm. The photograph was taken by Beals of Virginia City, Nev.

A photo taken ca. Christmas 1937, location unknown. This is my mom, Margaret Riehm, age 2 1/2, being held by her maternal grandmother, Margaret Immel DeKinder; her brother Jack, age 6, standing in front of her paternal grandmother, Cordelia Dandurand Fenton; and her mother, Julia Ann DeKinder.

My grandfather, Rex Riehm, in 1970. He was manager of Sierra Pacific Power Company's Portola, Calif., office until his retirement in 1974. He was twice appointed and twice elected to the city council of Portola and served a term as its mayor.

Thelma Davis -- remember her from under the Betschart photos? She's my paternal grandmother. After her divorce, she married James Smith in 1971. He died in December 1976, a week or twobefore Julia DeKinder (my maternal grandmother) died in January 1977. Grandma Thelma needed a job and Grandpa Rex needed someone to help him keep house, so my mom got the bright idea to bring them together. They got married in September 1977. (The dog in the picture is Pickles, a poodle who came to us as a stray in 1968 or 1969.)

Grandma Thelma at an Eastern Star installation -- I'm not sure what year, but it looks like she was associate conductress, which would have put this in 1978. In 1982 she became Worthy Matron of her chapter, Beckwith Star 201. I don't think she would have joined at all if it weren't for Grandpa, who had been very active in umpteen zillion clubs like the Mason and Rotary and Kiwanis. "The Riehms are real joiners," observed Beryl Riehm, my aunt-by-marriage.

Thelma and Rex Riehm with a couple of friends at a parade in Portola in 1984. I think it was for Railroad Days. After he retired, Grandpa Rex restored a Model T pickup, then the Model A shown in the link. He intended the Model A for Grandma Julia, who -- I don't remember the sequence of events precisely, but she died either right before it was finished or not long after it was finished. Grandma Thelma didn't learn how to drive until she was 50, and while she could handle a stick shift just fine she didn't want to drive the Model A, so Grandpa did. Nevertheless, she liked dressing up in the appropriate costumes to ride in parades in it. Grandpa sold the Model A not long before he died in 1989.

Grandpa Rex and Grandma Thelma in the late 70s or early 80s with Jim Smith -- not her second husband, but instead a member of the Plumas County Board of Supervisors (First District, I think -- the eastern part of the county).

Jordan Rex Riehm in October 1988, aged 5 1/2. Jordan, the second son of Rex and Julia's eldest grandson, Martin Riehm, died at Christmas 1999 in a car accident.

Merlaan in 1989, left, who had just asked the photographer if it was time to smile yet when this photo was taken. At right, having heard that fat people are jolly, she apparently consumed excess quantities of food and on Oct. 6, 2001, succeded in cracking a half-decent smile. She is shown trying to teach her second cousin once removed, Melody Miller, how to do the Vulcan "live long and prosper" salute. Please do not notice that Melody's fingers are almost as long as Merlaan's.

Unknown folks

Here's a series of photos that have managed to come into my possession, but I don't know who they are. Most of them I think belonged to Grandma Thelma and came from the time of her second marriage.
Any help identifying these people would be greatly appreciated!.

	This photo has no label, no date, nothing.
	"John and Ivey, November 1981." I have another photo of this same John, labeled "John, age 13. This is my red head."
	This is something of a puzzle. It appears to say "June 1981" on the back. This could mean the photo was taken in June 1981, or it might be a photo of June Scott, Grandma Thelma's next eldest sister, in 1981. But what looks like a "u" might actually be an "a," making this a photo of someone named Jane in 1981.

Return to index. | Send me your comments.